This invention relates to deployable structures and, in particular, to deployable structures having both stowed and deployed configurations.
Deployable structures, such as litters, bridges, support structures, window shades, shower curtains, tents, habitats, and solar arrays, having rigid structures can be effectively packaged and deployed. When deployed, the shape of such structures can be maintained. These structures can include flexible members, but the flexible members are typically deployed using a separate boom or booms.
For example, thin photovoltaic arrays have been used for the original solar arrays on the Hubble Space Telescope and for the primary solar arrays on the International Space Station (ISS). The Hubble arrays were packaged in a roll and deployed with booms mounted on either side of the roll that pull the roll out into a sheet as they extend. The ISS arrays were packaged into a stack by folding and pleating a long, thin sheet of material that is deployed with a single boom mounted underneath the array that pulls the stack into a sheet as it extends.